Analysis Of Dr. Seuss's The Lorax

When we think about our accountability and our impact on the environment, a bold but underlying dichotomy of nature and nurture comes as a call into action and for the understanding towards the importance of ecological care, environmental literacy and education to shape future generations to make the best possible decisions for the restoration and conservation, and appreciation of our only home. In this essay I will analyze the rhetorical jeremiad and environmental melodramatic discourse in Dr. Seuss’s 1971 classic The Lorax. Its facilitation in understanding environmental issues and ecological complexities of caring for nature, natural resources is a framework for sustainability and an anti-profit perspective for the economy through mass industrialization

It delves into the result of the environment facing extreme damage at the hands of the Once-ler’s corporate greed and disregard for conservation of the resource [the Truffula trees] he used for the all-encompassing and multipurpose product Thneed. The obstacle between the two reflects our society’s corruption due to economy, industry, and degradation of the environment rooted in greed and this is an issue we still face that is arguably one of the biggest contributors to destruction and natural resource

Seuss 's The Lorax states that “the Lorax is a cautionary tale, taking the specific form of a jeremiad and adapting it to the ideology of early environmentalism and the format of the illustrated book” (pg. 9). In "Narratives, Rhetorical Genres, and Environmental Conflict: Responses to Schwarze 's “Environmental Melodrama”, Steve Schwarze defines environmental melodrama as a feature of environmental narratives that “frames situations as confrontations between the virtuous and the villainous, and encourages audiences to take sides in such confrontations in order to repair the moral order” (93). He continues stating that with the inclusion of “the use of villains to heighten moral awareness of environmental threats is “an enticing rhetorical strategy for environmental advocates. (93) Before analyzing environmental literature, I always assumed it had to follow this particular narrative in order to reach the audience. Philosophically, the idea of morality is questionable because morality in many ways is a social construction to uplift certain perspectives to keep the existence of civilization in order by ruling of royalty or by a higher power that coincides with religious dimension, which is very jeremiad in thought. One could argue that there is a gray area even within the Lorax’s perspective of solely caring about